Indonesia plans to import as much as 4 and a half million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year starting in 2013 in a bid to cater to growing domestic demand, upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas said Wednesday.
BPMigas secretary Rudi Rubiandini said the country would begin importing natural gas when the construction of four LNG receiving terminals in Aceh, North Sumatra, Jakarta and Central Java were completed.
“If we had the receiving terminals we could actually start importing the gas. But we don’t have the facilities to store the gas now,” he said at the 2011 Pacific Energy Summit in Jakarta.
He said according to his agency’s data, in 2011 the natural gas allocation for domestic customers was 57 percent or 4,366 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd), out of a total gas production of 7,688 mmscfd.
Last year, out of a total production of 8,653 mmscfd, the government allocated 50 percent for the domestic market, the data showed.
